Strong
by gryffindorgal13
Summary: Charlotte Argtris, a representative of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, is assigned to work with Newt Scamander on peacefully attaining a beast on the black market trade in Egypt. It's more than she expected though as they both soon find that Africa has more than they expected that needs their help. Pre-film NewtxOC
1. Chapter 1

"Five Auror's Albus?" the man asked as he looked at the newly published front page for tomorrow's Daily Prophet.

It beheld a devastating sight of a demolished building with pile's of ashes slowly disappearing in the wind. He didn't want to think about what or possibly who, those were. His brow furrowed in disbelief at the thought of who could actually do such a thing.

"The prophet won't keep quiet about it, but at least they were polite enough to let me tell you ahead of time to inform other ambassador's" Professor Albus Dumbledore input as he watched the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Felix Argtris, pace back and forth at his desk.

The man's dark hair had been gone for year's now but still seemed to have a youthful sheen to it even with it's peppery color, granted his hardened and round face definitely showed his age. However, that was his best feature for this job. It was what allowed him to be so friendly and cooperative with other wizard's of their world while still making sure people knew he was still a force to be reckoned with. It was how he passed along negotiation's created by the minister that made sure that everything was staying calm and that all of these different cultures could work together as one.

"Fear is going to be spread quickly if what you say is true. That this is Grindlewald, and he's not just mercilessly killing muggles now. It'll be anyone who stand's in his way" Felix realized.

"It's not something I'm proud of to know the answer to but yes, thing's like that most likely will happen. But, that's why services like your's will be needed, you need to tell other wizards around the world what to prepare for, to stand together and be strong in this time of darkness" Dumbledore advised the worried man. Felix quirked an eyebrow at him humorously.

"Do you always speak in well versed speech?" he asked the professor. Dumbledore let out a chuckle at the statement, it was very similar to questions he had received from various snarky students before.

"I find it wise to always make use of a strong vocabulary and strike up rousing speeches of encouragement when necessary" Dumbledore answered.

"Thank you for bringing this to me, I'll send an owl out to the embassies and several other employees that are here at this hour to start spreading the news. Then we will begin planning with the minister on what we should do next," Felix told him as he leaned back against his desk now and started pouring himself a glass of Firewhiskey.

"It was no trouble, I was at the Prophet anyways to help with their relationship advice columnist on a burdening question she received. It was about the romanticism of side apparating with a significant other" he answered as he declined an offered up glass from Felix. The mood was lightened now which was a good relaxing distraction from the grief situation at hand.

"Well I'm intrigued, what was the final solution?" Felix asked, smiling again.

"We both decided that although it could quite literally bring a pair closer together the threat of splinching does put a damper on relationships"

Felix nodded in agreement at the satisfactory answer.

"That's why me and my wife stick to driving and portkeys if we can. Also she never liked side apparating. The first time I showed her what it was, she said it reminded her to much of being back in the womb" Felix agreed as he laughed at his own joke and Dumbledore politely joined in.

"How is your daughter by the way? She works in this department, doesn't she?" Dumbledore recalled, wanting to know more about the previous student of his at Hogwarts.

"Charlotte? She's great, like's to keep herself busy and run all over the place. She'll probably be back soon from the World Cup" Felix summarized, and then a thought hit him.

"Is it bad that I'll want to keep her away from this? More of as her father then as her superior," he asked Dumbledore.

"I'm not a parent myself Felix, but I do work at a school and can confidently say that children will often find a way of getting themselves into even worse trouble when you're trying to protect them" Dumbledore answered with a nod.

"There you go again with that well versed speech. I was good with a yes or no Albus" Felix said trying not to roll his eyes.

"No, it's not at all a terrible thought to have. With her mother being a muggle I wouldn't want to have my daughter have an encounter with Grindlewald either" Dumbledore told him.

As if on cue there was a quick knock on the door to Felix's office.

"Anyone there?" A young female voice called on the other side of it.

"Would you mind if Charlotte came in and said hello?" Felix asked Dumbledore.

"Not at all" Dumbledore gave a small smile.

"Come in dear" Felix answered back. There door was opened by young woman with long dirty blond hair and ice blue eye's that had a certain life to them, her pale skin held a slight pink to it of a growing sunburn, but it did nothing to keep her holding back the excited smile on her face. It was no guess that her looks most likely came from her mother's side but she had clearly gained everything else from her father.

"Professor, what a surprise?" Charlotte came in completely caught off guard at the sight of her old school professor.

It was an odd sight to say the least, to see him outside of Hogwart's grounds, she wasn't sure how to react. Her old student side wanted to be respectful and slightly felt the need to impress him with some sort of knowledge, while another side knew she was an adult now that didn't have to look to him as a teacher still.

"Good evening, Charlotte. How was the match?" he asked of her as they politely shook hands. Charlotte blushed and gave a glance to her father.

"Were you bragging about me again?" she asked her father a bit embarrassed. She knew she was proud of her job but still didn't like her parents telling every living soul that their daughter worked for the Department of International Magical Cooperation and got to be a personal representative for the Ministry with the Minister of Magic at the Quidditch World Cup.

"Of course I bragged Charlie" Felix gladly exclaimed. She strode over to her father's desk to take a spot next to him and took a sip of his Firewhiskey for tasting purposes. She couldn't hold back the disgusted face she made as a harsh taste of cinnamon burnt her throat.

"That still tastes like Christmas in all the wrong ways" she coughed.

"Then don't drink it" Felix laughed at her.

"Well I've gotta try it every time just on the off chance I might like it someday" she joked back then decided to go back to the subject at hand.

"Anyways Professor, the match was great! France beat Brazil in an absolute landslide. Quite a few brawls broke out amongst the government officials as well with accusations of cheating for gambling purposes" she laughed at the memory of how quickly wands and fists were drawn after the final whistle was blown.

"Luckily we managed to break it all up in the end, and I won quite a few galleons for betting on a battle of fisticuffs breaking out if France won" she summarized.

"You didn't antagonize the fight did you?" Felix asked, sounding very fatherly now.

"Of course not father what do you take me for? I was just lucky" Charlotte smiled at her father's jump of an assumption.

"How is the school Professor?" she asked a general question wanting to include Dumbledore back into the conversation.

"We are all doing well, Ravenclaw won the house cup this year" Dumbledore told her smiling at the previous Gryffindor's reaction at that fact.

"What bring's you here?" she asked him out of curiosity now. There was a brief moment of silence from her father that she knew he didn't want her to notice before Dumbledore answered.

"I came with an assignment that I thought your father would take a great interest in and in fact he referred me to your expertise for it"

"Really? What is it?" she asked while Felix gave Dumbledore a confused look as to what the hell he was talking about.

"It involves a previous student of mine, same age as you actually. Would you happen to remember Newt Scamander?" he asked of her.

"Sort of, I know he was the Hufflepuff who was expelled, but other than that nothing" Charlotte told the truth.

"He works in the Beasts Division with the Department of Regulation for Magical Creatures" Felix reminded his daughter to jog her memory a bit more.

"Oh yes, I know who he is then. Never seen him,but James gave him the approval to travel and write his book or something like that. Then he highly advised him to have one of us to follow him around and maintain things, but I think he said he just ran off without a care" Charlotte recalled, then turned back to her professor to finish the story.

"Well there's been word going around that a huge item black market trade was acquired in Egypt. A very rare and majestic creature supposedly. I in-"

"Wait a black market trade? How would you know about something like that, Professor?" Charlotte rudely interrupted and then blushed at what she had done. Hearing those words come out of her Professor's mouth had truly peaked her interest now.

"I'm sorry please continue" she told him as she received a humorous look of disapproval from her father.

"I informed Mr. Scamander about the news and advised that he request the assistance of someone from this Department to possibly help negotiate a peaceful way of attaining this creature from the traders, instead of running in, in a hostile manner. He agreed gladly to the circumstances,"

Charlotte looked between her father, and Dumbledore astonished by the assignment.

"I'm flattered that my father, suggested me, but..." Charlotte had to pause for a moment wondering what seemed so fishy about all of this. She would have to go to Egypt, which was amazing but also so far away. Why was her father trying to get her out of the country so quickly after she had just returned? Maybe she was just being cautious and the look her father had tried to hide meant nothing.

"But, I think this is what you're next assignment should be" Dumbledore finished for her giving her one of those knowing smiles of his.

Charlotte let out a sigh at the excitement of this idea! This would be something so much more adventurous than what she was used to. She reached back and took another sip of her father's Firewhiskey. It still tasted like burning cinnamon but not as bad this time and made her nerves feel electrified.

"I will speak to him in the morning then, Professor" she agreed while getting up from her spot on the desk.

"I'll be back in a minute father. I just need to drop off a couple things in my office and we'll go home together" Charlotte practically skipped out of this office now.

As soon as she left Felix looked towards Albus seeming a bit awestruck at what had just happened.

"I didn't think you'd send her all the way to bloody Africa, sir, and since when were you going to tell me about this assignment of yours?" Felix asked.

"We had other subjects to talk about at the moment but, my job here is done now. I believe the phrase is that I just knocked out two birds with one stone" Dumbledore answered.

 **Yay done with my first chapter! Tell me what you think because I know there's not a lot of NewtxOC fics out there soo yeah. Anyways have a nice day.**


	2. Chapter 2

It was a light tap on her window the next morning, that awoke Charlotte from her dreamless but still quite relaxing sleep. For the moment she decided to ignore it as she stretched out her arms from beneath her comforter and changed her position in the bed. She just needed three more minutes to let her fully wake up. However, this had the opposite effect as she began to drift off again.

 _ **Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap**_ she heard from her window again this time much harsher and quicker. Charlotte slowly opened her eyes and then sat herself up to begin her quick trek to the window in her front room.

 _ **TAP,TAP,TAP**_

"I'm coming" she shouted at the window speeding up her pace. This then lead to the great tragedy of scraping the bottom of her foot along a discarded heel from last night in her haste to get to bed after work.

"Ow! Bloody hell" she swore as she kicked the offending shoe out of the way with her good foot while taking a look at the injured one. The anger inducing heel hit the wall with a satisfying thud making her feel a bit better as she looked at the red scratch forming along the bottom.

With a bit of a limp now she made her way to the window seat to find a angry barn owl flapping it's wings on her window seal out of irritation.

"You're in a hurry, busy day for you?" she asked the animal curiously. The owl just gave her a glare at her slow response time to its arrival.

"I know you've got places to go, people to see. You have no time for simple nobodies such as me, so I will take those and let you be off" Charlotte responded as she took what looked to be a letter from the owl, while giving it a quick little pet as a thank you.

Once the delivery owl had left she took a glance at the envelope before her to find it blank, most likely, it was probably a note from someone at the ministry.

 _Charles,_

 _Just saw your note about your interest in accompanying me on the expedition to Egypt. Travel plans are being arranged at the moment but I would prefer that we meet in person before our departure. Please stop by my office at any point today._

 _Newt Scamander_

The sloped handwriting read as she glanced at it.

"Charles? That's what I get for shortening my name on the note" Charlotte recalled out loud as she reread the letter.

"Oh good you're awake then," the voice of her father announced itself out of nowhere.

"Father, I could've been naked, what the hell are you doing here?" Charlotte snapped at the sight of her father apparating into her living room, still in his night clothes.

"Do you often traipse around the house with no clothing on for all the world to see?" her father joked back at her making her cringe at the statement she had made.

"Stop any jokes before that goes any further. What are you doing here?" she asked again as they both ungracefully fell onto the couch. Without a word Felix handed her a copy of the Daily Prophet that he had brought with him as an indication for her to read it. Her heart fell to her stomach as she read the front page.

" **Five Aurors found dead in the aftermath of another attack by Grindlewald** "

As her eyes skimmed over the page it didn't take her long to find a mention of her father's name,as well as several other familiar ones, and the questioning of what him and the minister would plan next to ensure the safety of all muggles and wizards in Britain.

"I knew you weren't stupid enough to not, notice that something was wrong last night. I just thought you would like to know why" her father interrupted her reading. As she glanced up at her father it was easy to notice the fear he was holding back. With his position being so high in the Ministry and Grindlewald's recklessness now with who he killed, it had already crossed the Argtris's minds quite a few times on the possibility of being targets to make a statement.

"Good thing I'll be in Egypt for a while away from this mess then?" she stated putting the paper down as her heartbeat increased at the thought of losing her family to a mad man while she was gone. It wasn't as if she could protect them anyways if she stayed but just the thought of leaving them to defend themselves now terrified her more than her, being attacked on her own.

After finally putting two and two together though, she knew even if she had refused the offer there was no way her father, as her superior officer, would've let her work anywhere near the subject of Grindlewald. Not as an insult to her skills, but as her father.

"What about you and mum?" she asked.

"Oh you know us, we'll just lay low, quit our constant partying life style. Plus your mum's good at throwing shoes as a defense mechanism" he joked with her making her smile now.

"Come on, up you get now. Your mum wants you over for breakfast before you leave. I got an owl this morning, saying you and Mr. Scamander will take a portkey tonight to Turkey and then travel by boat from there" her father informed her.

"Excellent! By the way, I got another letter for 'Charles' " Charlotte spoke to him as she began hunting around her flat, wondering where she had put her wand.

"Charles, the famous son I never had? I was wondering when I would hear from him again" Felix responded loving the fact that, the assumption of his daughter's name actually being male when shortened, had happened once again.

Charlotte let out a huff of frustration as she clambered into the kitchen now, on the off chance that maybe during her tired stupor she had left it in there last night.

"Could you-" her voice began to shout from the kitchen.

" _Accio_ wand" Felix declared and a long Ash wand appeared from the other room flying towards him as he expertly caught it. This wasn't the first time Charlotte's wand had gone missing in her mess of a flat.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed as she ran back into the room grabbing her wand as the two apparated away, to appear in the comfortable and a bit small Argtris household.

"Damn it, you two made me drop the toast" Miranda Argtris exclaimed in frustration as the sudden appearance of her two favorite wizards caught her off guard.

* * *

The Department for the Regulation of Magical Creatures was an interesting sight to say the least. As Charlotte made her way down the long and carpeted hallway of the building she saw people with severe burns from dragon's being carted off to the department's own healer ward. She passed by a long line of strange people looking into getting certificates to purchase and/or trade various creatures. It was the noises though that really set the tone for what she was getting herself into. Every desk and office she passed her ears were met with the strange sounds of hisses, roars, and even a couple terrifying whispers that gave her goosebumps.

It was all strangely overwhelming and she felt like she could've spent a couple hours or so being nosy and just running around the place if she had the chance. Also it would have given her the chance to procrastinate the eventual first meeting with Mr. Scamander. No matter how long she had been doing her job, she could still never get over the strange nervousness she would have when she had planned meetings with someone she had never met. It was a silly and small fear that always stuck with her, but it still never held her back.

With her eagerness to get the awkwardness out of the way she found her leg's speeding up and was soon in front of an office that had its door closed, with a small bronze plaque on the front of it indicating the office of Newt Scamander. She gave a sharp couple of knocks on the door and almost immediately it was thrust open as the man himself quickly ran out of it and slammed it shut behind him, looking a tad bit flustered as he leaned back against the door. This fact was accentuated by smoke trailing off of him and a small ember glowing on his shirt sleeve that he swatted at to put it out.

"Hello, how can I help you?" he asked looking at her confused while very obviously, to Charlotte at least, trying to make it look like something wasn't going on in his office.

Charlotte tried to stretch her memory back to her days at Hogwarts and wonder how all that she knew about him was the fact he was a Hufflepuff who had been expelled. He was a very tall and freckled man with curly light ginger hair flopping in front of his green-blue eyes.

"Are you alright?" she asked.  
"Oh yes quite fine, made the mistake of removing a Blast Ended Skrewt from her eggs for research purpose" he summarized as if he was just conversing with her about the weather.

"I'm Charles by the way" she introduced herself.  
"Charles?" he asked looking even more confused now, at the fact that there was a woman standing in front of him named Charles.  
"Charlotte actually, Charlotte Argtris" she corrected him with a small smile on her face.  
"Charlotte, my apologies. Newt Scamander" he introduced himself, looking a tad bit embarrassed, as they both shook hands. Then the awkward silence finally came about as the two looked from side to side trying to come up with a topic to talk about.

"How's the book coming along?" Charlotte proudly asked as she remembered a good conversation topic.  
"It's going fairly well, lots of work still needs to be done and such" he answered with a shrug and then glanced at his watch.  
"She should be cooled down by now, she wasted all of her energy on me" he spoke to himself as he began to unlock the door back into his office.  
"You're going back in there?" Charlotte asked as she began to draw her wand out now, wondering if she needed to be prepared.  
"Of course, when they're not angry and spewing fireballs at you, they can be quite loyal, as long as you can cooperate with them, so there will be no need for wands. " Newt explained as he opened the door again.  
"Do you have any experience with magical creatures Ms. Argtris?" Newt asked as he began to wander around the tiny room he had for an office, keeping his footsteps as silent as they could possibly be. Charlotte seemed to have found herself stuck on the threshold with nervousness after hearing words like angry and spewing fireballs. From what she saw, the room was very standard with a wooden desk in the back covered in scribbled upon papers, bookshelves lined with books about creatures from around the world, and there was a long blue coat draped along the back of a rolling chair. In front of her sat a brown brieftcase latched closed.

"I'm a big believer in the rule that's usually applied to bees. If I don't bother them, they won't bother me. It's worked out so far" she told him.  
"Nice to hear, most wizard's go with the attack method" Newt gave her a small smile and then looked at her frozen to the spot, committing to her own philosophy.  
"Are you going to come in, Ms. Argtris?" he asked her.  
"Charlotte, and yes of course. You're sure she's calmed down though, right?" she questioned back as she slowly stepped in closing the door behind her.  
"Positive" he assured her, feeling more comfortable now as she nodded at him and put her wand back finally.  
"Now, here she is" Newt exclaimed as he found the Skrewt circling around the underside of his desk trying to make itself comfortable to rest. The creature was about the size of a toy poodle covered in dark scales that seemed to radiate a coolness off of them.  
"Can I look?" Charlotte asked not knowing if this was something that had to be handled by someone of only his expertise.  
"Of course, bring those dragon hide gloves as well so we can bring her back" Newt informed her as he motioned her over. Charlotte made her way to Newt with the gloves in tow as she got down to level with the underside of the desk to look upon the now sleeping creature. From her limited knowledge of Blast Ended Skrewts the sight she saw seemed to make it change as she saw what it looked like when it was in a calmer state.  
"It might seem like she's radiating a cooler temperature now but that's only to lure prey in. The closer you get the quicker you realize that she's still quite an inferno. One touch of her scales by human skin and you'll have a scar for life from the burn you'll receive" Newt informed her as he slid on the gloves she had grabbed for him.

"That's amazing" Charlotte told him as she enjoyed the small but slightly brutal fact.  
"Not the whole scar for life part, but the fact that she can do that in her sleep" Charlotte corrected herself, hoping her future colleague wasn't about to find her strange for that sort of comment. Luckily, Newt had nodded his head in agreement at her statement.

The two watched the creature in silence for another minute before Newt cautiously moved his hands underneath the sleeping animal, making sure not to disturb her.

"The case please if you don't mind?"Newt whispered to her now as he delicately held the Skrewt and began to make his way across the room.

Not really wanting to question what exactly he was doing, Charlotte agreed and opened up the case to find it completely empty and a big black hole was before her instead of the bottom of the case. The longer she looked into it the more shapes seemed to form, almost like when your eyes are getting used to outdoors at night after being inside all day.  
"Excuse me" Newt said as Charlotte moved out of the way to watch him climb into the case itself.  
"Excellent, Undetectable Extension Charm there...Newt or Mr. Scamander?" Charlotte asked down into the case.  
"Newt, and feel free to join me. I'm sure you'll end up in here again at some point on our travels, so better get a first look at it now"

Charlotte liked the sound of that, to her it meant that he was ok with the arrangement for this next assignment and she was too. With that she climbed down into the case and slipped on the last couple of steps, which were actually ladder prongs, and luckily landed on her feet. She found herself in a now lit wooden shack covered to the brim with herbs, papers, and various other trinkets. There was even a bed in one corner where Newt was placing down the sleeping Skrewt. Charlotte followed him, interested now, and found him laying her down on what looked like ginormous fish eggs. The temperature in the room seemed higher than anywhere else, which lead her to guess that the eggs were the ones radiating the heat.  
"Mummy's back little ones. She gave me a stern talking to for taking her away, so I would not mess with her when your older" she heard him talk to the eggs.

Once the Skrewt had been placed down the two walked back into the main area of the shack.  
"I thought, you just cataloged what you saw and moved on" Charlotte told him the truth of what she thought this man's original job description was, as she looked through the various shelves now out of curiosity.  
"Oh no, I do more than that, and there's more to see" he informed her, nodding his head towards the door.

 **Ok that was kind of a random place to end but I also thought it was ok to end it here. What did you think? I tried to keep Newt in character while making his and Charlotte's interactions a bit more real sounding, if that makes sense. Anyways there will be more exciting things to come and thank you guys for your reviews/favorites/story alerts they make me super happy and bring a smile to my face!**


	3. Chapter 3

"So, can we?" Charlotte asked as she began to inch near the door now eager to know what was on the other side.

"I would be more than happy to show you?" Newt smiled at her, as he opened the doors to show the vastness of the case's extension charm. As she followed him out of the small hut she came across a photo, one of the shelves, of a familiar frace from days at Hogwarts. In the photo there was beautiful girl with dark skin and pinned up hair that smiled back at her as the wind blew various flowers around her.

"That's Leta Lestrange" she commented out loud as she recognized the girl.

Back when she had first started at Hogwarts, she remembered the big scandal behind the girl and her house placement. A pureblood girl from a lineage of Slytherin's that had been sorted into Hufflepuff. It was around her fifth year though that Leta had finally succumbed to acting like the rest of her family in their wicked ways. After she had made such a vast change in personality all it had taken was a one month detention worthy encounter with her to make Charlotte realize that the best way of not having to deal with her was to just pay her no attention when she acted out to let everyone know how much of a superior witch she was to the rest of them, the attention only thrived her ego.

"Yes, yes that is" Newt responded looking down at his feet now avoiding eye contact.

"You two were friends?" Charlotte asked while taking a closer look at the photo. She tried to see how the Leta she now pictured in her mind could've possibly made such an impact on this man that he had her photo. Granted she had just met Newt, but there was no way he could have any qualities even relatable to a member of the Lestrange family from what she had observed thus far.

"Yes, once. Now, no, not since...well. Things changed" he mumbled looking like he wanted to avoid this subject entirely. Taking note of his uncomfortable-like manner Charlotte set the photo down and caught up to him as they made their way up a grassy hill. She looked up to take note of the sunlight that impossibly seemed to stream down on them. The ceiling of the case was very similar to the ceiling in the Great Hall.

"Do you remember me from Hogwarts?" she asked as she shoved her hands in her skirt pockets. She then realized how completely vain that must've sounded.

"You don't have to be polite and answer that with a lie, Dumbledore just told me we were in the same year. All I could remember was your name because...it's a big school" Charlotte corrected herself also making note of wanting to avoid the whole talk of his expulsion at the moment. Newt seemed to relax at her avoidance of the obvious subject they knew was sitting there like an elephant in the room.

"Vaguely, I know your cat took a liking to me. Now her I remember more than you. When she wasn't in Gryffindor tower she followed me around quite often, probably because I gave her biscuits and gladly applauded her on her findings for the day with the rodent infestation at school" he chuckled at the memory of the fluffy black and white Norwegian forest cat.

"That explains why Fluffy always got so fat once school started" Charlotte realized, after learning about this interesting fact.

"Fluffy?"

"Yes"

"That's highly unoriginal. I called her Susan because she was a proper lady who held herself well" Newt corrected her.

"I was 11" Charlotte playfully retorted back as they reached the top of the let out a gasp as she saw what looked like a dark desert like area before her.

Just then Newt started making these strange , roaring, noises. She had to cover her mouth to hold back her laughter at the fact that the suddenness of the noise made her jump.

"What are you doing?" she asked as Newt paused to catch his breath, she was still trying to hold back laughter, so the question came out as a choked whisper. The sound of hooves could be heard and was now growing louder. Newt leaned down to Charlotte's height and pointed off into the distance at four growing dots coming closer to them. They seemed to be part horse but had a face almost like a sea creature's. As they got closer to them and stopped at the sight of Newt, Charlotte could tell that it was obviously a family.

"You know what these are?" Newt asked as he began nudging the two of them towards the creatures. Not sure what to do with her hands, mainly to be sure she did not frighten the beasts, Charlotte kept her hands in her pockets.

"No, I never took Care of Magical Creatures, I choose Muggle Studies over it" Charlotte told him and noticed Newt looking down at her pocketed hands.

"Take them out of your pockets otherwise they won't trust you Charlotte" he quickly advised as he showed her the proper way of approaching them. They both knelt down to the height of the smallest creature that looked up at them for a second before going back to gnawing at some grass at it's feet.

"These are Graphorns, the parents were the last two in existence before I found them. Imagine if I hadn't, there would've been no more of them" he was almost whispering in amazement now as he stroked the neck of the baby. Charlotte could almost feel the eyes of the mother Graphorn on her, daring her to hurt it.

"You can introduce yourself to this one, he's much more tame. It's like meeting a dog, you show him the back of your hand and if he wants you to touch him, he'll let you"

"And if he doesn't?" Charlotte asked with a quirk of her eyebrow as she held the back of her hand out to the small creature.

"He'll bite it off" Newt joked with her. She quickly retracted her hand back but realized he was kidding after hearing his laughter.

Once more she tried to pet the baby Graphorn and he gladly let her stroke his nose. The sensation was strange almost like petting wet fur.

"Good" Newt complimented her as he began to stand up now.

"Thank you for meeting our guest" he spoke to the Graphorns taking something out of his pocket for them to eat before heading off. Charlotte quickly followed suit as they went from one beast to the next. She found herself becoming more and more comfortable with each one as she watched Newt interact and have a special bond with them.

"Hold on there for just a moment" Newt suddenly interrupted the comfortable silence that had been going on between them for a couple minutes as they now made their way into a heavily wooded area.

Charlotte had paused mid step and had her left foot practically hovering above the ground, it was already a miracle by magic that she hadn't lost her balance yet.

Newt set his hand down to the ground and then popped back up as he began talking to something, that nearly made Charlotte go cross eyed as she tried to focus in on it. It was a tiny green creature that reminded her of a walking stick and it seemed to be having an avid conversation with Magizoologist.

"You know Pickett if you wander off from the tree this far by yourself, you could catch a cold" the green creature, Pickett, seemed to respond back in little squeaks.

"Well of course I'm going to be at the office with other people at this time, we talked about this last night"

Newt turned back to Charlotte in apology for the conversation he was having with the creature that seemed to completely hold his attention as they walked towards a new growing tree with other green creatures crawling all over it.

Pickett looked disappointingly at Newt as he tried to persuade him to climb back onto the tree.

"Come on" Newt goaded him, which earned him a sharp shake of the head from Pickett.

"I'm busy with someone at the moment we'll talk later" Newt assured him. Pickett gave Charlotte a look over Newt's shoulder and rebelliously blew a raspberry at her, causing Charlotte to laugh at the reaction from the small creature.

"Now that is just rude" Newt told him as Pickett finally climbed back onto the growing tree.

"That one has a bit of an attachment issue, he's a Bowtruckle though, so he's supposed to say with his kind and in the trees" Newt explained to Charlotte as he gestured for them to look at a nearby nest now.

"No, that's fine. Now what are these beauties?" Charlotte asked as she became fascinated with the small feathered bird/snake type creatures in front of her. They all had great blue eyes staring straight at her.

"Occamies. Now these, I would advise hiding your hands from for a bit until they get to know you better. They are raised to be defensive because their eggs are made out of pure silver" Newt smiled at her as he held a hand out and one began to snake its way up his arm.

"I wouldn't blame them. I'd bite anyone who even looked at me funny if I had silver lying around my house" she agreed as she got a closer look at the creature.

"Ouch!" she suddenly exclaimed as she felt a sharp and painful tug on her right ring finger. She looked down to see something hanging onto her hand that had a tight grip on one of the few pieces of jewelry she owned. It was ring that was given to her by her mother and had grown much to small on her hand over the years leaving it practically stuck on her finger for the time being until her hands somehow became slimmer.

Charlotte held her hand up to eye level with the creature to see something that looked like a mix between a mole and a platypus. It seemed to be giving her a sheepish look at the fact of it being caught in the process of trying to steal her ring, or tear her finger off depending on which type of animal this was.

"Oi no! You can just shake him off Charles" Newt said getting a frustrated look as he saw the creature hanging off of her hand. Charlotte looked back at the creature which immediately let go of her hand falling to the ground with a soft thud as it scuttled away.

"Niffler, he can't control himself" Newt apologized again for the response this woman was getting from some of his creatures.

"You can call me Charles if you want by the way" Charlotte assured him.

"If you're alright with Charles than I will make no apologies for saying it from time to time on accident" he agreed looking sheepish at the mix up of her name again.

"This is great by the way, thank you for showing me all of this" Charlotte thanked him as she looked around her once more at where she truly was. It was hard to remember that she was still at the Ministry of Magic.

"Thank you for listening and actually seeing all of this" he genuinely thanked her for showing interest in his studies.

As if thinking about the place caused for a reminder for the outside world to appear again, an owl swooped over to them nearly getting bit by the Occamies as it landed by them on a nearby branch with a package in tow. With Newt being the closest one to the creature he looked at the letter and package.

"This is for you, it's from a Mr. Fleamont Potter" he read for her as she grabbed the package and the little note. Charlotte opened the note first to read:

 _The second part of your winning's from the Cup Ms. Argtris. As promised here is a prototype of my new product for witches with intolerable knot's in their hair. It was a pleasure to have you sit next to me and my wife this year at the match._

 _F. Potter_

With that she opened the package to find a potion labeled "Sleekeazy's Hair Potion".

"Oh I highly doubt this is accidentally meant for you Newt, unless you too get intolerable knots from time to time in your hair" Charlotte joked as she switched the bottle from hand to hand looking at it as the mixture seemed to sparkle in the light.

"No, I don't unfortunately" he simply stated making the both of them laugh. There was a loud knock that could be heard from above them that seemed to silence all life within the case for just a moment.

"And that's someone at my door" Newt explained as they looked up and started heading back to the hut that lead them back to the Ministry.

"I will take that as my leave to go then and shall see you later" Charlotte nodded to him as she began her climb back up the ladder with Newt right behind her.

The contrast between the world inside the suitcase and Newt's office was very distinct as she began to climb out and catch her breath for a moment.

"I'm very interested to see how this assignment goes" Charlotte told him the truth as she watched him effortlessly climb out after her and shut the case behind him.

"As am I Charles" he replied back at her opening the door for her with a smile.

 **Alright I'm not going to lie this might've been a bit of a slow chapter but there are more exciting things to come. Also I hope everyone is ok with the whole Leta hufflepuff thing it's my crazy crackpot theory about her and I was like why not mention it here but if it really bothers anyone I'll go back and change it to Slytherin. However, I hope you liked it and thanks so much again for your story alerts/favorites, and reviews they absolutely make my day and bring a smile to my face.**


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